Recommended reading

Much has been published about the finale, but little of it really terribly interesting. Below is what I'd recommend you check out:

Head Strong | The Secret Alternative Ending for the Sopranos. Interesting nuggets of information. They interview the guy playing "Members Only"-guy in the last episode, and a few things are revealed. They were looking for an italian-american guy for the role, and - according to him - there was another ending shot:

The first day featured an 18-hour session. His second trip to Bloomfield a few weeks later was for a second, 10-hour shoot.

Colandrea told me the product of those initial 18 hours was ultimately what played in Sunday's final episode. That scene took so long to film "because they shot every angle, and every different shot was taking at least 10 times," he said.

[...]

What he would tell me is that whatever they filmed during his second day at Holsten's didn't make the final cut. But before the episode aired, he thought the series would end with whatever he shot during those final 10 hours at Holsten's. Like the rest of us, he didn't expect the series to simply and suddenly stop.

This much is clear, though: David Chase and Paolo Colandrea filmed something in addition to the ending that had almost 12 million viewers convinced their cable had cut out at the worst possible time.

Bob Harris has a very, very interesting analysis of the final episode. Highly recommended.

Journey's End for the Sopranos from the Richmond-Times Dispatch (huh?!). This is really interesting, and focuses intensely on the music selected in the episode, and what clues might be picked up from that.

The Long Con from New York Magazine. Great stuff.

Alan Sepinwall, TV-critic for the New Jersey Star Ledger, the newspaper that Tony may or may not pick up in the driveway again, though we won't be there to see it. Alan has written terrific reviews along the way, and both his blog and Sopranos-site at NJ.com are highly readable.